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and he walks away. And I look around and there's no cop in Washington Square Park. And I say to myself -- it's now about 6:10 or so -- “I could walk away from this, but if I do, I'll never forgive myself, because here's this sonofabitch -- he's threatening me ... imagine what he does to other people.” I see him go over to two other guys, ask for quarters, they give him quarters because they're afraid. “I'm not going to leave,” I said to myself, “I will follow him. I'm going to get him arrested.”

So he walks up through the arch up 5th Avenue, no cops around. I walk on the other side of the street following him. We get to 8th Street, he turns right across Broadway. At that point a patrol car comes down 8th Street. I step off the curb, I stop the car, I say, “I'm Congressman Koch.” The patrolman said, “I know who you are.” I said, “I've just been hassled in the park, and I want to have the guy arrested.” He says, “Do you know how long that will take?” I said, “I don't care. I'm supposed to be at a dinner at 6:30 but I don't care.”

He said, “All right, get in the car.” I get in the car, we drive down 8th Street. There's this guy talking with two other black guys, three of them standing there. We get out of the car, walk towards them, and this guy says, “I didn't do it.” “Didn't do what?” I said, “That's him.” The cop says, “Okay, come on. He takes us down to the 6th Precinct, and they're very nice to me. They really want to get me through in double time. I said, “Listen, I've got this dinner that I'm supposed